The present invention relates to inflated containers and, more particularly, to a simplified and improved apparatus and process for producing gas-inflated cushions for packaging.
Various apparatus and methods for forming inflated cushions or pillows are known. Such inflated containers are used to package items, by wrapping the items in the cushions and placing the wrapped items in a shipping carton, or simply placing one or more inflated containers inside of a shipping carton along with an item to be shipped. The cushions protect the packaged item by absorbing impacts that may otherwise be fully transmitted to the packaged item during transit, and also restrict movement of the packaged item within the carton to further reduce the likelihood of damage to the item.
Conventional machines for forming inflated cushions tend to be rather large, expensive and complex, and produce cushions at a rate which is slower than would be desired. While smaller, less-expensive inflation machines have been developed more recently, such machines generally make only one cushion-size at a time, i.e., they are not capable of producing adjacent cushions having different dimensions from the same web of film, because such machines generally operate with film webs having pre-formed containers. That is, the speed and relative simplicity of such smaller, less-complex inflation machines generally relies on the use of inflatable film webs in which much of the container-producing operation has been performed prior to placement on the machine, so that the inflation machine simply inflates and seals the pre-formed containers. The disadvantage of this approach is that the pre-formed containers have a predetermined size. Thus, if different-sized cushions are desired, a different inflatable web must be installed on the machine, which results in the interruption of the cushion-making operation. Even then, it is still not possible to produce adjacent cushions of different sizes on a real-time basis.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a simpler and less expensive apparatus for producing gas-filed packaging cushions, yet one that also produces cushions at a relatively high rate of speed and has the ability to produce cushions of various sizes on a real-time basis.